The most lucrative move of Doug Polk’s career may be dropping five buyins to Daniel Negreanu on Wednesday in his 25,000-hand heads-up challenge.
That’s because it seems like he’s pushing for a battle with waste of skin and “King of IG” Dan Bilzerian.
While Polk has had the worst of it of late in his challenge with the popular Negreanu, it’s hardly an insurmountable deficit as HU poker is a tremendously swingy game, as evidenced by Phil Galfond overcoming a $1 million deficit in his PLO challenge vs. European player VeniVidi in April. Polk was one of the top HU players in the world before moving on to focus on investing in cryptocurrencies and making YouTube content. He announced his retirement from poker this year before returning after longtime nemesis Negreanu agreed to the grudge match.
While Polk was a minimum 4-1 favorite vs. Negreanu, it’s hard to imagine how high the odds would be against Bilzerian. Bilzerian, a “poker player” and “businessman” who has a net worth somewhere between tree fiddy and $100 million, claims to have garnered almost all of his wealth through poker, including $50 million in one year.
While it’s true that game selection is an important skill and Bilzerian has the connections to get into very soft high-stakes games where he is arguably profitable, his claim is highly suspect. Bilzerian’s father, corporate raider Paul Bilzerian, was found guilty of fraud to the tune of a $62 million judgment in 1992 but most of the money was never recovered.
Wannabe tough guy Dan Bilzerian has been accused of kicking a woman in the face and errantly tossed adult film actress Janice Griffith off a roof for a photoshoot.
Polk himself has analyzed Bilzerian’s play and pointed out many large mistakes he’s made while multi-accounting on pal Bill Perkins account on America’s Cardroom.
Here’s to hoping Polk can sucker Bilzerian into all the action he wants after the Negreanu challenge is over.